


Tuna Salad

by eggsinsunnyside



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: All because Henry ate a tuna salad, Demonic Possession, Humor, Joey Drew bakes lethal cookies and casseroles, The whole studio has grown used to people randomly combusting into flames, demon!Henry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-17 23:32:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14841305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggsinsunnyside/pseuds/eggsinsunnyside
Summary: Everything you cook includes holy water. So far, people either love your cooking or are exorcise in front of everyone there, without exception. Your best friend just pat out your tuna salad, complaining of a numb tongue and apologising for the mess.Or basically, Joey's cooking is really lethal.





	Tuna Salad

**Author's Note:**

> This was a prompt from the writing-prompt-s.tumblr.com about a tuna salad and I could not just ignore this.

It wasn’t like Joey ever suspected anyone of being a demon because what kind of man would he be if he just straight up believes someone’s a demon at first meeting?

A very paranoid man but you know, it pays to be pretty careful after you discover that demons exist.

The fact that it’s also very difficult to tell apart who’s a demon and who’s not just makes it all the more justifiable.

Thus, Joey started up the habit of cooking his food with holy water that he bought for two dollars in the pawn shop.

Apparently holy water tasted exactly like water, so it didn’t affect the taste of his food all that much which was great.

The first time he offered it to someone was when he had hired a new employee – some guy who’s name he couldn’t remember – and offered one of his homemade biscuit.

A biscuit that was made with holy water, mind you but a biscuit nonetheless.

As soon as the man ate it though, he immediately began to scream in pure agony and burst into a blaze of flame, all while the employees who were in the scene at the time was watching with horror.

Thankfully the new guy didn’t actually burn to crisp when the fire died down and was simply confused over what had happened. Unfortunately, everyone was traumatized by the sight of a man bursting into flames that they couldn’t look at him in the eye.

Joey had to let the guy go on his very first day.

Shame about the lost potential.

Sammy Lawrence was the first to approach him of the incident with an incredulous look that spoke of possible murder if Joey did not answer him correctly.

“What the hell was that about, Joey?!” He all but roared in anger, “You made a guy burst into fire!”

“He was fine! You lot saw him walk it off.” Joey answered with one of his disarming smiles, “He’s all fine.”

“Yeah but what did you even put in that biscuit to do… That?” Sammy pressed, irritated.

“I just added some holy water.” Joey shrugged.

To Sammy’s credit, the musician didn’t immediately reject Joey’s answer. He simply stared at Joey with flat disbelief and walked away.

Nobody asked Joey about the incident afterwards.

The next person who ate Joey’s food was Wally Franks during a staff break. The janitor had skipped breakfast earlier and was growling nearly every minute he went without food.

Many of the staff members had told him to eat the bacon soup that were in storage, which Wally vehemently refused to do.

Bacon soup was disgusting as hell, and Wally had no idea why they still kept the cans lying around. He’s pretty sure that Henry’s the only one who bothers drinking the gunk because he’s too lazy to walk to the break room and eat some _proper_ food.

So when he saw a platter of biscuits on Joey’s desk, he just had to swipe some. Besides, it wasn’t like Joey was going to complain about a few missing cookies.

Sammy frowned at him when he noticed the biscuit in Wally’s mouth, “Wally, where did you get that?”

“From Mister Drew’s office.” Wally spoke through a mouthful of crumbs and audibly swallowed, “Why d’ya ask?”

“Those are Joey’s biscuits?!” Sammy shrieked and quickly grabbed Wally’s shoulder, shaking him vigorously, “Spit them out damnit!”

“Ugh- Let- Me- Go- Sammy!” Wally sputtered, shoving the musician away roughly, “Why the bloody hell did you do that?”

Sammy stared at Wally in disbelief for a while before a confused frown took its place on his face, “You’re… not combusting into flames.”

“I’m not _what_?”

“The last time Joey offered his biscuits to someone, they burst into flames and traumatized a lot of us here.” Sammy clarified for the janitor with a shake of his head.

“How is that even possible?” Wally asked incredulously, hastily wiping the biscuit crumbs from his lips.

“When I asked Joey, all he told me was that he added some kind of holy water or whatever.” Sammy recounted, “Honestly I don’t believe a word of that.”

“You think that others might be possessed by demons or somethin’?” Wally suggested, “That’s for holy waters are good against, right?”

“Don’t believe that rubbish,” Sammy snapped, “Besides, how many demons do you think would want anything to do with this cartoon studio anyway?”

Apparently, lots of demons.

From there on, it became a roulette of who would eat one of Joey’s cookie and combust into flames or escape unscathed.

It eventually got to the point where people started a betting roster on who would burst into flames from eating one of Joey’s infamous cookies.

Unsuspecting interns would take the bite and either they blew up in flames or remarked that Joey’s cookie was good.

Veteran employees would only dare to take a piece over a deal and be traumatized if they were set on fire.

“You know, it’s kind of ironic.” Shawn said to Thomas one day as they were watching one of the new interns burst into fire, “We’re producing a cartoon about a demon, and demons are literally being exorcised inside our studio.”

“I honestly thought that Joey would be the one summoning demons, not exorcising them.” Thomas admitted with a shrug before pausing, “… Wait, what if Joey’s been summoning demons and that’s why people have been combusting into fire?”

“He hasn’t.” Norman’s voice suddenly said, startling the two men, “Henry burned all of his cult books in the park a week ago.”

“And how did you know about this?” Shawn inquired curiously.

“Joey was crying about it while he was stress cooking. There’s still some of the apple casseroles leftover in the fridge.” The projectionist answered nonchalantly before he shuffled out of the break room.

Thomas blinked and looked at Shawn, “Joey stress cooks?”

“Apparently so.” Shawn replied.

Eventually, people got used to the fact that whenever you ate one of Joey Drew’s cookie, you had the 50-50 chance of being set on fire or walking away with a ( surprisingly ) decent cookie in your mouth.

An unwritten rule in the studio was that you don’t tell any of the interns until they ate the cookie themselves.

Who knows if there was a demon possessing them after all.

Miraculously, none of the information had reached Henry’s ears.

This was mostly because he was buried deep in his work and the only time he ever looked outside of his drawings was if he had to go to the bathroom. Or if Joey called him.

Honestly, anything could happen around that man and Henry wouldn’t even notice until he was finished drawing.

“Hey Joey, can I have your tuna salad?” Henry asked, peering at Joey’s direction and eyeing the bowl of tuna salad sitting in front of Joey.

“Sure Henry.” The animator gleefully took the bowl and took a forkful-

Only to choke on it a moment later and spit out the salad. The glob of tuna salad sizzled on the ground, slowly reducing itself to a blackened sizzling mess until it was nothing more than a smoldering remain.

Everyone present in the area had immediately stopped what they were doing and stared at Henry with wide eyes.

“Sorry,” Henry wiped his tongue with his fingers and smiled sheepishly at Joey, “Numb tongue.”

“Henry, when did you get possessed?!” Joey exclaimed with a panicked tone, grabbing the animator’s head and staring at him closely in the eye, “Was it when I was doing that satanic ritual yesterday?!”

“I’m not- “Henry pulled himself out of Joey’s hold, rubbing his head and scowled at Joey, “Wait, you did another ritual?! Didn’t I burn all of your cult books?”

“Never mind that, you’re possessed by a demon!” Joey shot back, quickly facing the rest of his employees, “You lot, hold him down now. I’m getting my apple casserole!”

“Joey wait, I’m really not possessed-“Henry let out a surprised yelp as he narrowly avoided one of his coworkers running in to tackle the animator, “Guys wait, I’m not possessed by anything!”

“Only ghosts say that when they’re possessing someone! Now get down on the floor, nasty ghost so we can exorcise you out of Henry!” Wally yelled, brandishing his broom as a weapon and threw it at the animator.

“Ow hell- Wally, watch where you’re throwing the damn thing, it almost took my head!” Henry hissed, momentarily distracted by the broom.

He was quickly tackled to the floor by Jack, the studio’s lyricist and was dogpiled by other employees.

“Guys, get off! Nobody’s possessed in this damn room!” Henry snarled, struggling to free himself from underneath the pile of bodies.

“I got my apple casserole!” Joey announced triumphantly, holding up the dish, “We can exorcise Henry now!”

Henry paled when he saw the casserole in Joey’s hands, “H-Hang on, Joey- Can we please just talk this out first?”

“Sorry but I’m not going to endanger my old friend with a demon from a satanic ritual.” Joey quipped, “Now-“

“Joey, you feed me that and I’ll die!” Henry interjected, panic in his eyes, “That’s way too much holy water for me to deal with!”

“Well yeah, that’s the whole point.”

“No as in, it’s actually going to _kill_ me.” The animator repeated harshly, “You feed me that and there won’t be a Henry anymore.”

Joey beamed, “Not to fear! We tested this on other people. All they did was combust into flames and walk away just fine.“

“Yeah because those people were _possessed_.” Henry snarked, rolling his eyes, “Just- Just put the casserole away and let me explain. If I’m going to be done in by an apple casserole of all things, I better be allowed to explain what is wrong with your heads.”

Joey glanced back and forth between the dish and Henry’s frantic expression, and lowered the plate from the animator’s face, “I’m still keeping this close in case you break out.”

“I could try but everyone here apparently weighs like five rooms worth of bacon soup.” Henry complained, shooting the bodies piled atop of him a dirty look.

“So, what’s so different about you being possessed, Henry? The ritual I did was the same as the previous ones.”

“Again, I’m not possessed.” Henry sighed exasperatedly, resting his chin on the floor, “You probably know that to enter the real world, demons possess a body and all that right?”

“Yes?”

“There’s another way for demons to enter the real world, and that’s through rifts in the planes. Basically, it’s a free door that lets you go one way whenever you find ‘em, and you don’t need a body to possess for one.”

Realization flashed in Joey’s eyes, “Wait so you’re are-“

“Yep.”

“And all this time- “

“Mhm.”

“And you spat the tuna salad out because-“

“Yes.”

"And I almost-"

"Oh, yeah."

Joey stared at Henry for a while and shook his head despondently, “How did I not notice this? I’ve known you for years.”

“To be fair, I hadn’t done any demonic-ish stuffs in front of anyone and most of the time you’re too busy terrorizing the summoned demons.” Henry shrugged – or at least he attempted to under the body pile, “So… Can I go free now?”

Everyone climbed off the animator and apologized sheepishly.

“Well, I guess that’s sets that.” Joey muttered, “Alright, everyone back to work.”

Some of the employees complained at the sudden change of atmosphere in the studio but one look from Joey was quick to silence their doubts. It took a while longer for the crowd to disperse and eventually, things had returned to its regular state.

“By the way, I’m burning all of your cult books again, Joey.”  


End file.
